ANIMAL GIANTS 13 



and hardened, an excellent weapon of defence is provided, and the 

 natives of India use it as a shield. 



Although one might suppose that such an ungainly and slovenly- 

 creature would be slow of movement, the Rhino can, as a matter 

 of fact, move very quickly, and requires a fast horse and an 

 experienced hunter to overtake and capture it. 



In swampy jungles, rank with vegetation, the Rhinoceros finds 

 a congenial home. It loves to wallow in mud, and thus ease its 

 body of insect parasites that tickle and annoy it. Amid the regal 

 splendour of its jungle haunts the Rhino gives very little evidence 

 of its presence, for a number of the beasts will use regular runs like 

 our better known rodents, the Rabbit and Hare, and to stalk them 

 successfully is not by any means an easy task. 



Hunted like the Hippo for the sake of its hide and tusks, the 

 African Black Rhinoceros was, says Mr. Ernest Protheroe, shot 

 in thousands between the years 1840 and 1880. He states that "two 

 men bagged no less than fifty upon one occasion in a single excur- 

 sion ; Oswell and a companion captured eighty-nine in a season ; 

 and in the same short period sixty fell to C. J. Andersonn's gun 

 alone." 



Mr. F. C. Selous, the intrepid big-game hunter, who has given 

 us so much first-hand information concerning different kinds of 

 animals which those of us, less fortunate, perhaps, have only been 

 able to study in Zoological Gardens, gives an interesting account in 

 his Hunter's Wanderings in Africa of the capture of a Rhinoceros 

 calf, and before passing on to the next animal giant on our list 

 Mr. Selous's graphic description of his encounter will be read with 

 interest. He writes : — 



"One morning Wood and myself, taking advantage of a few 

 hours of clear weather, rode out to look for game, and after shooting 

 a Roan Antelope bull were returning home, when, in a small patch 

 of bush, we rode right on to a Black Rhinoceros, that we at once 

 saluted with two bullets. As the wounded animal galloped off, 

 we saw for the first time that it was followed by a small calf, which 

 could not have been more than a day or two old, for it seemed 

 unable to keep up with its mother, and upon our approach ran 

 under the legs of Wood's horse, who, calling to me to go on and 

 kill the cow, pulled in, in order to secure it. With another bullet 

 I dispatched the cow accordingly, and returning to my friend, 

 found him sitting under a shady tree, and the little Rhinoceros 



